Munchie Monday: Successful Blueberry Muffin Tops!

 Wa--hoo!!  Two recipes in a row met with applause by Dear One.  Unheard of, really.  This Blueberry Muffin Tops recipe was the first success.

The recipe came from Once Upon A Chef with Jenn Segal for Best Blueberry Muffins.  Go to her website for many more good recipes.  I did make some changes in her recipe, most notably I change milk to buttermilk since I want to use up the buttermilk in the refrigerator so I will no longer be tempted by it...Dear One is a happy camper with the food I have been making for him lately.

Since we were going for muffin tops and since Dear One LOVES blueberry muffins even more than chocolate muffins, I thought I would give these a try.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Get out your muffin tops tin and a portion scoop.  I used a 2-3 Tablespoon scoop. (I will have to measure to see which it really is...)

In a large bowl whisk together:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl stir until smooth:

1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 bottle caps vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until all the flour is incorporated but don't take a long time with.

Fold in 2 cups or so of fresh blueberries then scoop into muffin top pan.

Bake for 10 minutes.  Check them.  They should be done. If not, let them go a little longer. Maybe 1 minute more.

This recipe made 12 small and 4 or 5 large muffin tops.  Yes, I did go crazy and ordered a small muffin top tin.  Glad I did, too!

When I went to my camera roll to find a picture to share I found double chocolate muffin tops and corn muffin tops but no blueberry muffin tops.  I will need to make some more soon, I think!

Munchie Monday: Southern Buttermilk Biscuits. Sort Of!

 The other night Dear One and I were watching "The Chef Show".  This is a bad idea.  We think about food way too much after watching the show.  The chef was making Southern Buttermilk Biscuits.  Dear One asked me to make some biscuits since we had everything in the house for them.  SO...this morning I made them.

It turned out that one major ingredient we did NOT have: self-rising flour!  Well, that was easy enough to replicate.  May I say at this point that there is more self-rising flour on the grocery store shelves than there is regular all-purpose flour? And most other flours that are so common in the Upper Valley are not there at all.

So this is what I did.

In a large bowl I place 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 TABLESPOON baking powder, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. I whisked them together well then got out a stick of frozen butter from the freezer.  As quickly as I could, I grated 3/4 of the stick on a box grater on the larger holes. 

When grating the butter I placed the grater on a piece of Cling Wrap.  The Chef grated his onto a piece of parchment paper.  Good idea.  Grating on a piece of Cling Wrap: bad idea.  The butter "clung'!!!  So annoying that I did not think of that beforehand.

See the little balls of frozen grated butter?  So annoying it did not just fall off the Cling Wrap.  Next time: parchment paper.

Working as quickly as I could I scraped the butter into the flour and mixed with a fork until the butter was all coated with flour.  At that point I dumped in 3/4 cup of buttermilk and stirred around a few times.  I needed to add another bit of buttermilk to bring it all together.

At that point I dumped the whole thing onto the counter which had a little flour on it. I pushed and pulled the dough together just a little then flattened it and cut out biscuits with a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter.

Slapped the pan into a preheated 450 degree F. oven and let them cook 10 minutes.  Not done so I put them back for another 2 minutes plus 2 more minutes.  Took them out at 14 minutes but they really could have used even another minute or to.  The top and bottom were a little bit crispy. I never had crispy biscuits before but they were so good I want them to be even crispier!  Yes.  I did eat more than one.  BUT I did not put butter on them. I left the butter for Dear One who loves butter. I used apricot jam...

These really were nice and high and fluffy.  I asked Dear One why he liked high biscuits.  He said that was what he had when he lived at home with his parents.  I should have realized that because one time we were at their home and I commented on the nice biscuits.  His dad said he always put a lot of extra baking powder in them to make them him!  So...there you have it!

Food Today: Cream Cheese reprised

Because the last cream cheese was good, but not great, I decided to try things somewhat differently this time.

At 5 PM I combined 1 gallon whole milk with 2 cups cultured buttermilk in a large clean stainless steel pot and set on the cover.  The plan was to let it incubate for 4 hours then heat the milk to 180 degrees prior to adding 1/4 cups cider vinegar to release the casein.

Instead I let the milk sit overnight on the counter.  At 9 AM I started raising the temperature slowly.  In about half an hour it was at 180 degrees.  I shut off the heat and removed the pot from the stove. I added 1/4 cup cider vinegar and stirred for one minute with a long-handled clean stainless steel spoon.  The protein began precipitating almost immediately but I continued to stir.  After one minute, I covered the pot and let sit for 15 minutes.

Now it was time for draining.  I put a  damp "flour sack" kitchen towel into a large colander in a larger bowl in the sink and carefully poured the curds and whey into the kitchen towel.  (The "flour sack" kitchen towel is easier to come by than good butter muslin.  I got this one at the King Arthur Store.) The draining process was discussed in the previous cheese post so I will skip it here.

After the curds had hung for an hour, I divided in half and put into two glass bowls.  To the first bowl I added 1 teaspoon Krazy Mixed Up Greek Seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon each: granulated garlic, powdered onion, dill weed, and kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper (because I had it!) and 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream.  I stirred the seasonings in well, covered, and refrigerated for the flavors to meld.

To the second bowl of curds I added all the same seasonings PLUS one giant clove of garlic put through a garlic press.  After stirring it well together, I put it into the food processor (Cuisinart) for a couple of minutes to "whip", then put back in bowl, covered, and refrigerated.  Well, I had a taste...it was really good, really garlicky...just the way I like it!

Tonight I am going to Book Group.  I am going to take both bowls of flavored cheese and some baguette slices so the ladies can taste this and give me their opinions.  Whenever I attend a function where food can be served, I think "GUINEA PIGS"!!  It is very useful to have people tell you what they think...as long as you have a very thick skin.  After all, you want their actual opinions, not what they think you want to hear.  Those opinions may not be flattering nor comforting, but they will potentially help you make something better next time.

Food Today: Homemade Cream Cheese and Seasoned Cheese Log!

Today we are having a very large snow storm. It is predicted to last for 36 hours and leave up to 20 inches of snow covering our already-deep snowbanks.  Because I was out last night for our Relief Society birthday party (a wonderful affair, by the way!),  I stopped at the grocery store to get two gallons of milk so I could make some cottage cheese during the predicted storm when I would be going nowhere.

Yes, I was planning to make cottage cheese but I had not re-checked the recipe so, I changed to making cream cheese/farmer cheese...

The cottage cheese required a twenty-four hour wait after innoculation of the milk,  so I had no problem changing my mind on what to make TODAY!

This is what I did:

Poured one gallon whole milk into a large stainless steel pot.  Started heating it gently to 175-180 degrees F.  In the meantime, since I failed to bring the bottle of buttermilk out of the refrigerator to "warm up", I set the buttermilk bottle into a sink of very warm water to bring it to room temperature (or a little more) within a few minutes.

Once the milk in the pot on the stove was at temperature I poured in 2 cups room temperature buttermilk and 1/4 cup cider vinegar and stirred well for about one minute.

At this point I let the cheese sit for 10-15 minutes.  After 15 minutes I poured the curds and whey into a butter-muslin-lined stainless steel colander which had been set in a large bowl to collect the whey.

Cream cheese brick

Seasoned cream cheese log

After draining for a few minutes I pulled the butter-muslin together to tie at the top so I could hang it to finish draining.  In my case, I put a wooden spoon through the tied-top and put it through the handle of our microwave oven with the colander and bowl underneath to continue catching the whey that would drip out.

Cream cheese brick wrapped in plastic then covered with foil for refrigeration.

After 30 minutes of hanging, there were no more drips.  Just for my own interest I weighed the cheese.  There were 24 ounces of fresh new cheese!  For $2.89, plus $1.00 for the buttermilk and a negligible amount money for the cider vinegar!  Good deal, if it tastes good...

Leftover whey!  LOTS of whey!!

Seasoned cream cheese log with matzos.

At this point I divided the cheese into two batches in separate bowls.  To one bowl I added 1 teaspoon of KrazyMixedUp Greek Seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon each of granulated garlic, powdered onion, dill weed, and Kosher salt,  plus 1/4 teaspoon white pepper.  Once I mixed this in well, I made a double layer of plastic wrap and formed the seasoned cheese into a log, rolled it up,  and wrapped tightly.  Tomorrow I will see how it tastes and if the texture is right for a cheese log to use for slicing for baguettes or crackers.

To the other half of the cheese I added 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt and 1/2 cup heavy cream.  I stirred it well then shaped it into a brick on a piece of plastic wrap inside some heavy-duty foil then sealed it up tightly.  After refrigerating, I will see how I like it.  It may be that 1/2 teaspoon was too much Kosher salt. I probably should have used cheese salt which is very fine and mixes in better, most likely!

A very nice way to spend an hour on a very snowy day!  Now to my knitting.  Well, Dear One may want a meal at some point....!